I_know_nothing
September 20, 2000, 10:12 AM
I read the airline news and thought you might be interesed to read this article as well:
• Second-hand smoke did harm, flight attendants say in cases against tobacco makers
BLOOMBERG NEWS
MIAMI
Philip Morris Cos. and other U.S tobacco companies face about 3,000 lawsuits by flight attendants saying that they were harmed by inhaling second-hand smoke on the job, an attorney suing cigarette-makers said.
Under a 1997 settlement that allocated $347 million for health research and legal fees, flight attendants had until Sept. 7 to file individual claims. The accord paid the flight attendants nothing, though it permits follow-up suits seeking compensatory -- not punitive -- damages. Miami lawyer Bill Hoppe said that of roughly 3,000 flight attendants' suits, he's filed 471.
Although hundreds of suits were filed in the weeks before the deadline, the numbers disappointed some flight attendants.
Between 60,000 and 145,000 may have been eligible to sue, said Norma Broin, the named plaintiff in the class-action case that led to the 1997 settlement.
''I'm concerned that there were many, many more thousands that weren't notified and haven't filed,'' Broin said.
Broin has said that her former attorney, Stanley Rosenblatt, received $47 million in fees, then broke a promise to represent some clients.
He also failed to maintain a toll-free number for potential plaintiffs and sent only 10,000 letters notifying them of the deadline, Broin said.
PHILIP MORRIS IS REVIEWING each suit on a case-by-case basis, a company spokesman said.
''We're getting ready to prepare our defenses,'' Philip Morris's Michael York said.
The settlement gives the flight attendants one legal advantage.
The tobacco industry agreed to accept the legal burden of proving that second-hand smoke doesn't cause disease. Normally, plaintiffs have to prove that it does.
The first of the individual flight attendant cases may go to trial as early as the end of the year, lawyers said.
Rosenblatt has moved on to even larger legal victories against the tobacco industry since the flight attendants' case.
On July 14, a jury in Miami awarded a record $145 billion in punitive damages on behalf of all Florida smokers.
That jury verdict, a culmination of a two-year battle, is being contested in federal and state courts.
Published: September 20, 2000
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I am from Barcelona; I know nothing!
Iknownothing@crewmail.to
• Second-hand smoke did harm, flight attendants say in cases against tobacco makers
BLOOMBERG NEWS
MIAMI
Philip Morris Cos. and other U.S tobacco companies face about 3,000 lawsuits by flight attendants saying that they were harmed by inhaling second-hand smoke on the job, an attorney suing cigarette-makers said.
Under a 1997 settlement that allocated $347 million for health research and legal fees, flight attendants had until Sept. 7 to file individual claims. The accord paid the flight attendants nothing, though it permits follow-up suits seeking compensatory -- not punitive -- damages. Miami lawyer Bill Hoppe said that of roughly 3,000 flight attendants' suits, he's filed 471.
Although hundreds of suits were filed in the weeks before the deadline, the numbers disappointed some flight attendants.
Between 60,000 and 145,000 may have been eligible to sue, said Norma Broin, the named plaintiff in the class-action case that led to the 1997 settlement.
''I'm concerned that there were many, many more thousands that weren't notified and haven't filed,'' Broin said.
Broin has said that her former attorney, Stanley Rosenblatt, received $47 million in fees, then broke a promise to represent some clients.
He also failed to maintain a toll-free number for potential plaintiffs and sent only 10,000 letters notifying them of the deadline, Broin said.
PHILIP MORRIS IS REVIEWING each suit on a case-by-case basis, a company spokesman said.
''We're getting ready to prepare our defenses,'' Philip Morris's Michael York said.
The settlement gives the flight attendants one legal advantage.
The tobacco industry agreed to accept the legal burden of proving that second-hand smoke doesn't cause disease. Normally, plaintiffs have to prove that it does.
The first of the individual flight attendant cases may go to trial as early as the end of the year, lawyers said.
Rosenblatt has moved on to even larger legal victories against the tobacco industry since the flight attendants' case.
On July 14, a jury in Miami awarded a record $145 billion in punitive damages on behalf of all Florida smokers.
That jury verdict, a culmination of a two-year battle, is being contested in federal and state courts.
Published: September 20, 2000
------------------
I am from Barcelona; I know nothing!
Iknownothing@crewmail.to